Metascore®Mixed or average reviewsbased on a weighted average of allcritic review scores.

58

out of 100

Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum

As PC busting goes, this first feature directed by Tony R. Abrams and scribe Adam Larson Broder shoots at close range, and there's something endearing about the way the filmmakers fire away so eagerly at such fluorescent-colored targets.

Parents need to know that Pumpkin is a black comedy that aims to satirize Greek life by showing its characters as hopelessly conformist, shallow, self-serving, and oblivious to the suffering or setbacks of others. The premise involves a sorority girl falling in love with a teenaged boy with physical and intellectual disabilities. Though the movie aims to subvert stereotypes, it does so through profanity (including "f--k"), sexuality (including topless women having sex), crassness, and a grab bag of political incorrectness that insults ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, and gender. Best for mature teens who can separate the underlying messages from the caricature in which they are presented.

Does the film portray developmental disability accurately? How or how not? Why do you think the filmmakers chose to present disability in this way?

Does the relationship between Carolyn and Pumpkin seem likely -- that a boy in a wheelchair could be inspired by a pretty girl to get out of a wheelchair and start walking and playing sports?

Does the film's attempt at satirizing the more conformity-minded among us work? Why or why not? Does the film inadvertently reinforce the very messages it aims to undo? Why or why not?

The good stuff

Messages: Pumpkin offers positive messages about recognizing prejudice in ourselves, and what it truly means to accept differences. It also warns against the dangers of conformity and status-seeking.

Role models: The film's satirical nature often presents characters as deeply conflicted, shallow, or self-serving. Some characters stand out as pure or true in comparison, but often in such broad strokes that it's difficult to see them as anything but types used for how they illuminate the flaws of others.

What to watch for

Violence: The film contains a scene of a wildly exaggerated car explosion, which leads to the paralysis of the driver. In another scene, a teenager wrecks a car but is not injured. In another scene, a college-aged man fights a teenage boy, delivering six or eight punches before being hoisted up and thrown to the ground. Blood is shown briefly with one fighter's bloody nose.

Sex: In one brief scene, a man is show in montage form having intercourse with three different women who are on top of him; each is topless and shown briefly from the side. In another scene, a college-aged woman is shown in bed with a teenage boy, covers pulled up to their necks, as if to suggest having had intercourse (the woman is called a slut, whore, prostitute, and pedophile by his mother). Sensuality occurs elsewhere in the movie, with a teenage boy looking at a bikini-clad centerfold. A man and woman kiss in bed, half-dressed. Girls dance suggestively in hula skirts and bikini tops. A guy hugs a girl and slides his hand to cover her behind.

Language: The film contains pervasive use of profanity and politically incorrect, racist, and prejudiced language, in addition to scenes where gender-based critiques are commonplace, such as calling bigger women "mastodons." Characters are referred to by their ethnicity, such as when sorority sisters discuss getting a Filipina to join the sorority purely for the sake appearing diverse. Characters' ethnicity, sexual orientation, or abilities are used to imply their rank in social hierarchy, such as when a guy says he'd heard of guys "losing their chicks to black guys or lesbians, but to a retard?" Disabled individuals are discussed more basely, such as when an intellectually disabled character is said to "become aroused more easily." Profanity such as "Jesus Christ," "f--king ridiculous," "bitch," "whore," "slut," and others are used frequently.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: An adult woman referred to as an alcoholic is shown in a few scenes drinking cocktails during the day. In one scene she is shown slurring her words angrily after drinking.

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